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Lilian Kabalisa from Kibale District, Uganda, became ill when she was at school. Her illness is called 'high blood pressure', when the blood is pushed too hard around the body. The heart, which is a pump, has to work too much. When this happens, people can become very ill. This is what happened to Lilian.

High blood pressure

I remember very well – I was at school in Primary year Five, when I first had high blood pressure. This illness made a big change in my life. Some days I was not able to move because I felt so ill. My parents took me to clinics and hospitals, but my illness got worse. Sometimes my blood pressure was high, sometimes it was even higher. I hated myself because I was so ill and even wished I had never been born.

When this illness was very bad, I became powerless, not able to move or even talk. Putting on my clothes was a problem because I got fatter. Then I had a stroke I could not feel the right side of my body, even when a needle was pushed into me. For four years I could not speak properly. I was a 'moving dead body'.

No cure?

The doctors did all they could for me, but they did not find a way to make me better. They told my father to take me back home. One doctor said, "We can do no more. Don't think we don't want your daughter to live, but her blood pressure is just so high. We cannot give her any more pills [tablets], they are of no use to her now."

When I heard these words I cried. I asked God to help me. My father took me home. Many people came to look at me. They told my father to take me to the witch doctor, but he would not do so.

Then a man came to see me who knew about herbal medicine. He gave me herbs. I took these for two years, but I still did not get better. Every month my father paid 50,000 Ugandan shillings for the herbs. He was only a farmer and this made him very poor. I was sad to see what was happening to my father because of me. I cried out to God again, as I had done at the hospital.

I heard a voice

One night, it was after midnight, I heard a voice speaking to me. "Lilian, wake up, pray, sing, try to think about all that has happened to you and your family. Read some stories in the Bible that tell you about Jesus Christ who healed people. Find out how much God loves you. Read the story Jesus told about the lost son.* Then I will heal you from your illness."

I woke up and tried to look for the person who had spoken to me, but I could not see him. Straight away I began to read stories from the Bible, just as the voice told me. When day came, I went to the doctor. He would not examine me. He said, "You don't have high blood pressure."

I told him he was the doctor who had looked after me for eight years. I showed him all the medical forms. The doctor said, "You don't look like a person with high blood pressure."

I realised I was healed!

*Lilian knew it was not the doctor or the herbs that healed her. It was Jesus Christ, whose voice she had heard in the night. He had shown his love to her by healing her.